EU leaders to weigh terrorism, defense ties, migration

Evan Douglas | June 24, 2017, 0:21

EU leaders to weigh terrorism, defense ties, migration

At one point, officials took a short break to smile and pose for photographs holding gifts.

Nearly a year after British voters took the decision to leave the bloc, Davis took a team of officials to open the negotiations with Barnier in the European Commission's Berlaymont building on Monday. Davis gave Barnier a book about hiking.

Yet Davis stressed that Britain would deliver certainty "as soon as possible" to European Union citizens living in Britain and to British citizens in the European Union, a common ground between the two sides. The talks are scheduled to take place for one week each month until an agreement is reached.

Davis and Barnier both admitted the Irish border question dominated the first negotiating session, but there did seem to be progress on the issue of European Union citizens' rights.

The EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barniersaid: "We are talking about orderly withdrawal first and that makes sense". The move backfired, May lost her Conservative majority in the vote and has been fending off critics of her leadership ever since.

"So who knows? You may say I am a dreamer but I'm not the only one", Tusk continued, quoting a lyric from the late John Lennon's "Imagine".

Johnson also urged Europeans to look further down the road.

In Paris on Monday, a man was apprehended after he tried to ram his auto into police on the Champs Elysee and in Brussels on Tuesday, a man attempted to detonate a nail bomb in the city's Central Station.

Discussions aimed at preserving the Good Friday Agreement and common travel area in Ireland will begin, although Davis suggested these issues may not be settled until the end of the process, when the UK's trade relationship with the European Union is settled, the BBC reported. Currently, almost half of its exports go to European Union countries.

The BBC has been told by European Union sources that the talks will follow the EU's preferred pattern of exit negotiations first, with the future relations between the two sides - including the free trade deal the United Kingdom is seeking - at a later date.

EU leaders want May to lay off threats that she would walk out and leave a chaotic legal limbo for all Europeans.

A problem for British negotiators is to resolve what trade relationship they want. The EU thinks the Luxembourg court should be the arbiter of disputes over citizens' rights, an idea that is toxic to Tory backbenchers - though cabinet ministers have struck a markedly less combative tone on Brexit since the general election wiped out the Conservatives' majority. Davis said that the two sides already have similar positions.

After nearly a year of waffling, Britain on Monday finally opens negotiations with its European Union counterparts about leaving the bloc, with the final outcome, due in 2019, as important as it now seems unpredictable. That agreement, which largely put a stop to decades of sectarian violence, dissolved any visible signs of border between the two. Ireland's leaders have warned that any new barriers could be a setback for peace.

On the eve of the referendum anniversary, European Union diplomats say they remain in the dark about key aspects of the UK's Brexit plans.